TWO WOMEN told a jury yesterday how a doctor carried out intimate
examinations on them when they went to hospital for tonsil operations.

They also said he asked if they were on the pill and questioned
them about their menstrual cycles. Both women said they had not been
sure what the pre-surgery procedures were and thought internal
examination was part of the normal routine.

The 35-year-old Pakistani doctor, who the judge ruled must not be
named to protect the identities of the patients, has pleaded not guilty
in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two charges of sexually assaulting
the women on July 28, 1997. The alleged victims were aged 18 and 23 at
the time.

The 23-year-old woman told Tom O'Connell BL, prosecuting, that
she had been having problems with her tonsils for some years and was
referred to the Mater Hospital by her GP.

On July 28, 1997 she was summoned to the hospital where she was to
have the operation the next day. Members of her family accompanied her.
She was admitted to a ward and given a cubicle with a curtain. A nurse
checked her blood pressure and temperature.

Later, the accused, an anaesthetist, came to see her and pulled the
curtain around the bed. He asked her about her menstrual cycle, whether
she was on the pill and other questions relating to her family's
medical history.

He also asked if she smoked, if she was asthmatic and how much she
drank. When she told him she was not on the pill he looked at her in a
strange way.

When she told him she had a boyfriend, "He told me he was in
the country for about two weeks and he hadn't got a steady
girlfriend."

She alleged he motioned to her to lie on the bed and to open the
button of her trousers. He started feeling around her stomach and when
he touched her side she jumped because it was tender from an old
complaint.

"His hands moved slowly down the inside of my legs, my thighs,
my groin area. Next thing, before I knew it, he had inserted his finger
in my vagina. He did not have any gloves on," she told Mr
O'Connell.

She went on to claim he touched her stomach again before putting
his finger back inside her and moving it about.

The woman said his actions caused alarm as she knew it was not
right. She pulled her legs together and he took his hand away. "I
just kind of looked at him," she said.

He touched her stomach again and then moved up to the head of the
bed, said something and kissed her on the lips. "I put up my hands
and said 'No'," she said.

She alleged that he again touched her stomach and inserted his
finger into her a third time. She straightened her legs and he asked her
if there was a "problem".

She claimed he then pulled up her cardigan and used a stethoscope on her stomach. She could feel him touch the nipple of one of her
breasts and he said: "You are a beautiful lady."

The woman said she was not sure of the exact details of the
incident. "It's a bit fuzzy to me because at some stage I just
switched off," she said.

During the 30 minutes or so she was with him he inserted his finger
in her on about two or three other occasions, she said.

Afterwards, when she left the cubicle, her sister asked her what
was wrong and she made allegations against the accused. She later spoke
to two nurses and one said: "No, that should not have
happened."

She said she was very upset and was crying. While in a smoking room
she met the second alleged victim who told her the accused had done the
same thing to her.

Cross-examined by Barry White SC (with Cormac Quinn BL), defending,
the woman agreed she had a solicitor in court to keep a "watching
brief" for a civil action.

She told Mr White she did not know what the accused's job was,
or why he asked her about the contraceptive pill. When she said she was
not on the pill, he looked at her in a "funny way".

Mr White suggested this look might have been out of amazement that
she was not on the pill. The woman agreed she did not ask the accused if
it was appropriate information to seek.

"I said I have a steady boyfriend because I was getting a
strange vibe from him," she said.

She said she did not ask for a nurse because at that stage nothing
had happened and she did not want to over-react.

"I did not fully know if it was the correct procedure or not.
When you go to the doctor you trust the doctor," she said.

When asked why she had not called her sister who was outside, or
call for a nurse, she replied: "Because there were a lot of
emotions going through me at once."

Mr White said his client would give evidence that he put his finger
in her only once. He would say he had been in the country a few months
and that part of his job was chatting to put a patient at ease.

The accused would say he never kissed her, said she was beautiful,
or said she had a "beautiful nipple". He said the people of
Ireland were beautiful in answer to a question she put, said Mr White.

The second alleged victim told the court she had originally been
scheduled to have the tonsil operation in September 1996 but it was
cancelled because she was on the pill.

She said she had not been told she had to be off it for six weeks
before the operation.

In November 1996 the operation was again cancelled because she had
the flu.

On July 28, 1997 she returned for the operation and the accused
inserted his finger in her vagina on two occasions. It really hurt her
the second time and he also touched her breasts, she claimed.

Opening the case, Mr O'Connell BL told Judge Frank
O'Donnell and the jury that the accused's role was to get a
clinical history so that it could be decided what type of anaesthetic should be used.

The accused didn't have a nurse with him and didn't use
gloves when he carried out the vaginal examinations.

A consultant would say there was no conceivable reason for this
examination on patients who were to have tonsillectomies and even if
there was a need for it, gloves should always be used.

When challenged about this point by Mater Hospital staff after
complaints were lodged that night, the accused replied that gloves were
never used in Pakistan and also that he was unaware it was part of the
Mater's "protocol" to use gloves in vaginal examinations.

The hearing continues.

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